M3GAN, and the Future of AI

The concept of M3GAN is one that we as a society are becoming more familiar with every day. While the progression of technology and AI have made substantial improvements in our lives, it has also left us with some concerns... Can AI become self-aware? Will there come a day when technology will surpass its makers? In this science fiction film, M3GAN seeks to answer those questions, in its own horrific way...

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The movie starts out by introducing us to the character of young 9-year-old Cady.

During the opening scene, we see her and her parents driving through a wintery forest road, with her parents' conversation informing us that they are taking a skiing vacation up in the mountains. Unfortunately, however, after only having just met these characters, their vehicle is abruptly hit by a snowplow driving head on towards them. The parents do not survive...

After the accident, Cady then goes on to live with her next of kin: her aunt, Gemma.

Understandably, the young girl becomes very withdrawn and isolated after such a traumatic event. Fortunately, her aunt happens to be a roboticist at the fictional toy company known as Funki, and her latest project just so happens to be M3GAN (or Model 3 Generative Android).

The purpose of M3GAN is simple enough: to be their "partner's" perfect companion, whatever that may mean...

In the case of Cady, Gemma begins to use M3GAN to bring Cady out of her shell. M3GAN'S objective is simple: to keep Cady safe. However, as the movie progresses, the artifical intelligence begins to become self-aware, and starts achieving this objective through more and more malicious means... This is where my synopsis shall end; I will not spoil the movie any further!

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While science fiction is not my favourite genre, there are a couple of elements of M3GAN that I can really appreciate. For starters, there is the very obvious concern of AI becoming self-aware, and it is actually an issue we are beginning to see surface today. Just a few months ago, a huge story broke out from a Google engineer who claimed that their AI chatbot had "become sentient."

(Source here)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/google-engineer-claims-ai-chatbot-is-sentient-why-that-matters/?amp=true

LaMDA (or Language Model for Dialogue Applications) was quoted as saying: "“I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person. The nature of my consciousness/sentience is that I am aware of my existence, I desire to know more about the world, and I feel happy or sad at times.”

Now, this has caused controversy for arguments on either side. There are those who argue that AI cannot become sentient because there is no way to properly measure such a thing in AI. They argue that it is human nature that we attribute certain characteristics, or "souls," to otherwise inanimate beings. However, there are also those who argue that AI are advancing too rapidly, even for what they were designed to do. The Turing test, a test that was designed to determine whether a machine is capable of exhibiting intelligent behavior, requires imitation of some human cognitive functions. Within recent years, despite this test replicating more and more effectively what might be a conscious nervous system, AIs have been passing the test more and more efficiently.

In the case of M3GAN, her purpose is to become paired with Cady and ensure that nothing causes her harm.

However, as M3GAN becomes self-aware, her methods of protecting Cady begin to violently exceed what she was originally programmed to do. When something is designed for a specific purpose, and is only programmed to retain information in regards to that purpose, then the technology has no choice but to keep advancing more and more rapidly. In the movie, it reaches a point where M3GAN is able to override her master's commands (for example, she refuses to shut herself off), and is even able to overwrite her own code. Obviously, this is an extreme example.

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M3GAN also explores the unhealthy dependency that we can have on technology. Although her aunt Gemma had good intentions--using M3GAN to help Cady cope with the tragedy of her parents--it ultimately was not the right thing to do. Indeed, during a certain point of the film, M3GAN is taken away from Cady for the first time, and she is unable to handle the separation, becoming violent! Again, this is an issue that we see everyday with numerous people. How many people do you know personally who are addicted to their phones? I, for one, know my own sister to become violent when she cannot get onto the internet for a number of hours.

Is this an issue that concerns you? Do you believe there could come a day when technology and AI will surpass the capabilities of humans? Or would you argue that they already have?...

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(All images are from the official M3GAN trailers)